


responsibility

by setosdarkness



Category: Aldnoah.Zero (Anime & Manga)
Genre: (or as fluffy as you can get with these two), Chocolate, M/M, Post-Canon, Tsunderes, Twisted and Fluffy Feelings, Valentine's Day Fluff, slaine is 100 parts tsun and 0 parts dere tho
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 16:38:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,446
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17749568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/setosdarkness/pseuds/setosdarkness
Summary: Inaho gives Slaine chocolate. It's as disastrous as Slaine expects it to be.





	responsibility

Slaine barely resists poking at the innocuous dark brown box placed at the middle of his table.

Years of this same song and dance has conditioned him to expect the telltale sound of the chess set settling on top of the metal table. The chess set isn’t in sight. Instead, there lies a sleek brown box. It’s a couple of centimeters larger than his hand. There’s no wrapping paper, but it looks fancy anyway.

Seeing and using nothing but the barest of essentials can make everything look fancy in comparison.

Time means nothing to him, so he’s not certain if this is due to some misguided celebration or holiday.

He doesn’t care.

He shouldn’t care.

Nothing means anything to him.

Slaine bites at the inside of his cheek in an effort to control his reactions. He’s not curious. He’s not going to give Kaizuka the satisfaction of seeing something else aside from indifference on his face. Indifference, irritation, ire. The sheer impossibility of his presence here, alive and rotting above ground instead of being eaten by the maggots underground. The last time he’s exposed so much of himself was on _that_ visit by Kaizuka.

It’s been years.

It could have been months.

No, unless one counts the months in bundles of ten.

Kaizuka remains unchanging.

Except for the smallest of changes, that is.

Kaizuka grows taller each time he visits. Or perhaps, it’s because Slaine is getting smaller, thinner, weaker. Eventually, Slaine will waste away, will disappear into thin air. Not even the most laidback budget can continue to afford a fancy cage for a bluebird that has its throat cut ages ago. Even the most easygoing of governments will start to work on technological advancements, exploits that require vast amount of resources.

Eventually, they will realize that they are spending so much to keep the secrecy when it’s easier to keep a secret if there’s no secret that exists.

Eventually, they will let Slaine go—to the only other freedom he has left.

Eventually.

Kaizuka grows chattier each time he visits. Or perhaps, it’s because Slaine has promised himself to only dole out the bare minimum of responses. Faint nods, sealed lips. Kaizuka’s voice remains in that dull monotone, but he talks about random things, anecdotes about his daily life. He talks about idle matters, about coworkers gossiping about his self-cooked _bento_ , about his sister marrying and moving to a different continent due to a lucrative promotion, about his friends scattering all over the globe to do their part in leading their lives. Kaizuka never talks about the Princess or about the relationship between the two planets or about the Aldnoah reactors or about anything that Slaine cares to hear.

Typical Kaizuka. Doing things that Slaine doesn’t ask for, not doing things that Slaine doesn’t know—or even want—to ask for.

Kaizuka changes in small details, but he mostly remains the same.

Kaizuka’s sweater-sleeve always remains in that awkward length that drives Slaine crazy. Slaine is convinced that it’s part of Kaizuka’s strategy to gently impose his cruelty. There’s been a number of close-calls, when Slaine was moments away from lifting his hands and clawing into Kaizuka’s wrists, into rolling that sleeve up and inside the military coat. There’s been a couple of aborted conversations, because Slaine was already well into opening his mouth and questioning if Kaizuka had ever bothered to learn proper etiquette and fashion.

But Slaine isn’t curious.

He doesn’t want to learn about Kaizuka’s quirks.

He doesn’t want to get to know Kaizuka, Kaizuka’s life, Kaizuka’s mundane everyday existence.

It’s enough that he knows that it’s Kaizuka who has saved the Princess, that it’s Kaizuka who was by the Princess’s side, until he wasn’t.

Until the two of them had crashed into each other, breaking atmospheric pressure and crash-landing into this type of inseparable relationship.

“It is chocolate.” Kaizuka’s voice never changes. It’s always that same dull inflection.

Slaine doesn’t care to answer.

“Do you know what that is?” This time, Kaizuka’s voice has a teasing lilt to it.

It’s annoying.

“Of course I know what it is!” Slaine huffs and glares at Kaizuka. He isn’t stupid. He isn’t some sheltered spoiled brat who didn’t know what was going on around him. He knows what a chocolate is.

“Good.” Kaizuka’s eye remain the same dispassionate brown. Kaizuka’s other eye remains covered. “I am giving it to you.”

Slaine pushes down the urge to bristle like a cat hosed down with water. Instead, with gritted teeth, he comes up with a, “No, thank you.”

A tilt of his head. A light drumming of fingers against the metal table. A sigh forming on the edges of his lips. These are the things that Slaine could see in front of him.

Kaizuka doesn’t blink, meets his gaze. “I have been told it is good.”

“Good for you.”

Slaine eyes the package warily. Nothing means anything to him, so if the chocolate is laced with poison, he’d gladly gobble it up, even swallow the packaging whole. But that’s not Kaizuka’s style. It’s more likely that Kaizuka would end him by boring him to death. Despite the overwhelming possibility that it’s not actually laced with poison, Slaine still feels wary of the box of chocolates. Death by poison would be a relief, compared to the brand of cruelty that Kaizuka is capable of.

A mean, vicious snake inside his gut hisses that it would serve him right if Kaizuka would then reveal that the chocolate is from the Princess and the Princess gave it to Kaizuka.

Kaizuka’s brand of cruelty is slathered in kindness. He’d be the type of person who’d think that he’d be doing Slaine a favor—a kindness—by letting him taste chocolate coming from the Princess.

…No, it’s impossible.

Kaizuka doesn’t talk about the Princess, but Slaine knows it’s because they’ve gone down separate paths. He recognizes the Princess’s effects on the people she interacts with. There is no gentle warmth emanating from Kaizuka. And even if there is, Slaine doesn’t want to see it. He’s not interested in it.

Slaine looks up. The two of them stare at each other, gazes meeting over the metal table. Slaine’s fingers twitch. He clears his throat. “If they found it so ‘good’, then they’d better eat it.”

Kaizuka shakes his head, like Slaine is a particularly unruly dog. “I am giving it to you.”

“I’ll pass.”

“Do you want me to feed it to you directly?”

“No!” Suddenly, Slaine’s standing up, banging his right hand against the tabletop. The box shifts slightly from the violence of the motion. “Get the hell away from here!”

“It is Valentine’s Day today.”

“I don’t care!” Slaine feels blood rushing past his ears. Time means nothing to him. “Just get the hell—”

Valentine’s.

Slaine feels his breath stutter inside his throat, clogging up the rest of his words so he ends up choking on them. He’s promised himself that he’ll only be indifferent, unaffected by Kaizuka’s presence. It’s been years, he’s sure of it. It’s been years but he’s still rattled by each visit, by each word, by each moment they spend together. It’s unfair, given that Kaizuka’s already won the battle and the war. It’s loathsome, the way Kaizuka can dissect him so thoroughly and efficiently, even with just one eye staring at him. It’s beyond frustrating.

Like some psychedelic kaleidoscope, memories from the past couple of visits intertwine into a dizzying loop in front of his eyes.

Kaizuka, telling him that he’s been working hard on learning new recipes.  
Kaizuka, telling him that he’s found a couple of people eager to taste-test for him.  
Kaizuka, telling him that he’s going to return to see him.  
Kaizuka, telling him that he must live on.

“It is not exactly a holiday, but my colleagues have managed to get wind of information as to how I have sufficient mastery over my culinary skills. They had insisted that I assist them with their own cooking endeavors. Since there was a demand, I have acquiesced to making a number of batches to be distributed to my colleagues.”

Kaizuka’s eyes—a warm brown. He only looks like that when he’s feeling confident about being able to get under Slaine’s skin.

Slaine feels sick.

With enough luck, he’d end up spilling his empty guts over Kaizuka’s shoes. Knowing his own luck, he’d probably end up dry-heaving uselessly over the table and Kaizuka would end up, _what_ , princess-carrying him to the infirmary.

Slaine decides not to chance it, biting his lip, pushing down the urge to hurl.

“We are not colleagues.”

Kaizuka hums, tilts his head. Not an agreement, not a rejection. Simply existing in neutrality.

It’s maddening, just how easily Kaizuka is able to siphon out his energy, just by existing.

“Everyone at work has their own share,” Kaizuka murmurs, his sleeves remaining at that irritating length that teases the possibility of Slaine being rid of the sight of those stupid fingers. Kaizuka, who looks the same as always, the same part of his hair, the same length of his hair, the same uniform, the same eye. “Even those in this facility.”

“That doesn’t mean I have to eat it.”

“It does not,” Kaizuka agrees mildly. He looks very serene. Slaine wonders if this is Kaizuka’s current brand of cruelty in full display once again. Even in kindness, Kaizuka is cruel.

Slaine, who’s only ever known love in fleeting montages, in the birds in flight, in the flush of butterfly wings, in the trumpets of war, in the midst of the galaxies, in the heavenly blue. Slaine, who’s never known another sort of existence, aside from suffering at the bottom while looking up in supplication. Slaine, who even at his highest point is still at the bottom of someone’s heel.

Slaine, whose own breathing and existence are out of his reins. Slaine, whose only semblance of control is whether he’ll open this box of chocolates and eat the contents.

At the end of it, it’s really because he can’t quite stand the implacable steel of calm over Kaizuka’s face.

Slaine raises his hand slowly, inches it close to the package. Lifts the cover in drawn-out seconds. Sets the cover aside with exaggerated carefulness. Inspects the contents with its plain presentation and appetizing aroma.

Kaizuka’s gaze is on his fingertips, on his lips.

Slaine stares him down, a small, inconvenient thrill in his stomach at being at a higher ground than Kaizuka. Slaine’s hip is cocked against the cold metal table, the chill seeping in easily to his skin, the thin prisoner’s uniform doing nothing to protect him. With false grace, Slaine takes a dainty bite out of one of the bite-sized chocolates. It melts in his tongue, dark and intense cocoa mingling with something that could probably be almonds and hazelnuts.

Kaizuka’s brought him a variety of home-cooked meals before—no, that is inaccurate. Kaizuka’s told him about his plans to bring him a variety of home-cooked meals before, but they’re all obstructed from entering Slaine’s cell due to protocol. Security reasons. As though Slaine wouldn’t welcome a poisoning attempt with open arms. As though Slaine would even accept it. As though Slaine has anything to be afraid of, especially from Kaizuka. No, Kaizuka’s already seen the worst of his humiliation, so there’s nothing that Slaine can even hope to nestle away from his ever-sharp gaze.

In any case, this is the first meal from Kaizuka that has ever managed to reach his cell.

Perhaps there’s a holiday is making everyone relax. Perhaps there’s a celebration going on that’s making everyone look the other way. Perhaps the years have worn down on the weariness from war, leaving behind buds of peace, ready to bloom.

Kaizuka’s gaze and voice remain the same.

“I have been promoted, Slaine.” It’s said with the same sort of calm that Slaine envies. “This is the last time that I will be stationed in this continent.”

Slaine doesn’t acknowledge the words. Instead, he busies himself with taking another one of the chocolate squares. There’s twelve in total. This one is slightly sweeter, with hints of milk. He swallows and licks his lips.

“So this is a goodbye meal? You shouldn’t have.”

Kaizuka going away means there’s going to be another person in-charge of overseeing his situation. No, that is too naïve. Nobody would risk bringing another person in on this secret. Perhaps this is his last meal. It would be better for everyone if he simply disappears. Somehow, that thought brings a more genuine smile to his face.

But of course, trust Kaizuka to ruin his fleeting good mood immediately. With a seriousness that should only be reserved for the gravest of situations, Kaizuka solemnly says, “I would like to remain responsible for you.”

Slaine feels a laugh jolting out of his lungs, of his veins. “Pfft, Kaizuka Inaho. You should reserve such solemn declarations for the person unfortunate enough to be your wife.”

“Oh?”

There’s a hint of curiosity there, in Kaizuka’s gaze. It makes his eye brighter. Perhaps it’s the chemicals in the chocolate talking.

“Yes. Anyone who’d willingly go with you is very unfortunate indeed.”

To Slaine’s surprise, Kaizuka smiles back as he murmurs, “Indeed.”

Slaine feels his breath stutter inside his lungs.

No.

Something is strange.

Kaizuka never changes. Kaizuka never manages to bring him a meal. Kaizuka—

Kaizuka’s smile.

 _“I have been promoted, Slaine.”_  
“This is the last time that I will be stationed in this continent.”  
“Everyone at work has their own share. Even those in this facility.”

Kaizuka’s gaze.

_“I would like to remain responsible for you.”_

“You did not,” Slaine whispers, but it barely leaves his mouth. His vision spins, a psychedelic blend of colors. His throat feels dry and his eyes feel like they’re rolling to the back of his head. He slumps forward, gravity pulling the rest of his meager weight. He feels Kaizuka catch him, his cheek knocking harshly against the stupid sweater. Kaizuka’s heartbeat is erratic, but Slaine is certain that Kaizuka’s face is as calm as a grave.

Kaizuka’s tone is fond, as he muses against Slaine’s ear, “The next part of our date will be at my place.”

Slaine doesn’t bother rolling his eyes at the other’s words, his tongue too heavy from the drugs inside the chocolate. Really, he should have trusted his instincts when he felt that the chocolates were trouble.

The next time he opens his eyes, he promises himself to give Kaizuka a nice punch for the sheer stupidity of breaking him out of the prison he never wanted to leave.

For now—

Slaine ends up in Kaizuka’s waiting arms.

**Author's Note:**

> thank you for reading till the end! :) have a great day! ♥
> 
> (also, yes, inaho broke slaine out of prison via chocolate;;)


End file.
